Bonus Stage: THE GLITCH
by Cheesy-SJP
Summary: Joel and Phil are trapped in a clichéd computer program. They must find a way out. The person they meet on the way in may help in this. Note: Based off of the cartoon Bonus Stage, found at


"Why are you making all this noise down here?" Phil shouted down the basement steps.  
"I am inventing...THE INTERNET!" Joel shouted back.  
"You're too late, Bill Gates already did that."  
"Oh. It still makes a good segway, right?" He said, let down.  
"Yeah, I guess so-UAGH!" Phil shouted, cut off midway by a huge pull at his leg.  
Joel and Phil are sucked into the half-finished device. The cyberpunk storyline begins now.  
"As if my room wasn't enough, now you redecorated my lab! With...blackness...and green." Joel said, staring around at this new environment.  
"That wasn't me! Or maybe it was. Yes. No. Yes no yes-noyes--No." Phil said steadfastly.  
"Right then." Joel replied.  
Phil looked around. "It would appear that we've been sucked into a computer program WITHIN A COMPUTER PROGRAM. Which _somehow_ allows for us to magically walk around in the code, and which is _somehow_ 3D and has mass."  
"Brilliant exposition!" Joel shot at him. "Now, let's go find a way to get out of this place that _is not a ripoff of the Simpsons!"  
_**Chapter II**_  
_-We are now in the "real" world, where Evil has gained entry to their lab.-  
Evil laughs maniacally. "Joel Dawson's laboratory at last! His inventions are now mine to wreak havoc with--oh sweet, a DS. Hey, is this Mario Kart? I've heard this game's pretty good...Hm, is that another game pak--GAH!  
He is, predictably, also sucked into the apparatus. What wacky shenanigans will come of this?  
**Chapter III  
**"Hey, Joel, you hear something?" Phil said, looking behind him.  
"Like what?" Joel asked.  
"It sounded like a sort of slurping, like when a vacuum sucks up a spill." Phil explained.  
"Strangely specific noise, but I have no idea what it was. Hey, wait. What's that up there?" Joel said, pointing ahead.  
"That block of code looks remarkably like a plot point--I mean house." Phil pondered.  
"Let's go see what's inside it." Joel said, running ahead.  
"Yeah, it OBVIOUSLY won't lead to death!" Phil said sarcastically, picking up speed to keep up with Joel.  
"Relax, we'll just come back next episode anyways." Joel replied. That _was _a pretty solid argument.

They raced ahead to the block of code, which seemed to have an open door frame on it. They walked inside and looked around when their eyes locked on the source of a low groan.  
"H-help...food...need..." said the sickly figure.  
"Who's this guy?" Phil said, looking curiously at the person.  
"That's not a guy, dude." Joel said.  
"Whoa!" Phil said, looking at the apparent girl's thin, bony face.  
"Who...who are you? Why are you...in this place?" she said weakly. Phil pointed angrily at Joel. Joel shrugged.  
"Yeah, I was working on a machine in my lab and it kind of malfunctioned. So we're stuck here and all." he said in explanation. "How about you? How'd you get in...wherever we are?"  
"Don't...have enough energy to explain..." she rasped.  
"Oh, give up the act. You're thin, sure, but you're speaking normally. You're fine." Phil said angrily.  
"Man, I've known you guys for, like, 3 minutes and I already hate you." the suddenly normal-sounding girl said. Joel rolled his eyes.  
"So, you were saying?" Phil interjected, exasperated.  
"My name's Christie; I came here through pretty much the same way you did. I was working in a lab on a project for Hereti-corp, when we got hit with a power surge and I got pulled in here by the excess of energy. I've been here ever since. This place sucks." she finished matter-of-factly.  
"Yeah. So how do we leave?" Joel asked. Christie broke into hysterical laughter. Joel glared at her. "Leave. Way. Now. Tell." he said forcefully.  
"Fine... I guess if we modified the code to reject our connection, we could get out." she said.  
"Wait, we're on the INTERNET!" Phil shouted.  
"Uh, yeah. Since we got in from multiple places, I figured that was assumed." she replied. "But we should get going."  
"But it'd be awesome to see the Bonus Stage site!" Phil shouted in her face. Joel grabbed him by the collar and pulled him outside. Christie followed them with a worried look on her face. Phil thought he saw a shadow shoot behind them, but it was gone a second later.  
**Chapter IV**

Evil dusted off his death-cloak and lifted himself off the ground. "Those fools think they can escape me! They know nothing!" he shouted at nobody in particular. "I will have their souls!" With that pledge, he raced off, running around the 1s and 0s of the code like a slalom course. He kept an eye skirting his field of vision for any sign of the two technological explorers, but so far had come up with nothing. He then came up to a protrusion in the code, but it was just a lump. It even burned when he touched it. "Just a glitch," he said, jumping over it and flowing forward again. He had better things to attend to. 10 minutes passed, and he saw a square-shaped bump in the code ahead. He thought it was normal at first, but then noticed there was a door frame on it. It was a little cyber-shack. He heard voices from within and hid behind a 0. He looked through its center to see Joel and Phil exiting the shack with a girl he didn't recognize. He dashed out to a 1 to get closer, and saw a look of recognition dawn on Phil's face, but it subsided, and he relaxed. He was going to catch them. He didn't know when or quite how, but he would. An invisible grin stretched across his pitch-black face. He then raced off into the binary, the plan still formulating in his ethereal head.  
**Chapter V  
**"I'm telling you, there's someone following us!" Phil shouted, continuing to be dragged by Joel.  
"And _I'm _telling you to shut up before I duct tape your lips together." Joel told him. Phil sighed and slumped his shoulders. Then he saw the shadow again. His eyes went wild and he pointed directly at the 0 he had seen it go behind.  
"THERE! BEHIND THAT! IT'S THERE! GET IT! AAAAHHHH!" he screamed. Joel socked him across the face.  
"Shut up. I'll check who it is, and possibly have an action-packed fight scene with them, but I promise nothing. Christie, make sure he doesn't get away. He's too insane to be left unattended at the moment." Joel said, frowning at him.  
"I say that about you all the time, but nobody ever listens to me..." Phil mumbled as Christie grabbed his shirt collar and held him fast.  
**Chapter VI  
**Evil hid close to the green 0 he was behind. He knew Joel was on his way, and he wasn't about to be found. He flattened himself against the inside of the 0 and stayed quiet. Joel glanced around the number.  
"There's nobody here. Wow, you're paranoid, Phil." He yelled back.  
"YES THERE IS! HE'S HIDING INSIDE THE ZERO, ARE YOU BLIND!" Phil responded. Evil suddenly shot out from the 0's inner surface and slammed Joel across the face. "OK, maybe there WAS someone there." Joel said, his hand over the area where he had been punched. Suddenly the image on the screen flickered and blacked out. A huge neon-colored screen shot up reading "INSERT HIGH-BUDGET 3D-RENDERED CGI FIGHT MOVIE HERE!" It faded out again and the normal view reappeared. Joel was standing over Evil with his foot on his mangled corpse. "Ya see, Evil? Nobody beats the main character--I mean me." He said, smirking. "OK, now that I've defeated the antagonist, we need to magically discover the way to get out of here. Plot advancement...GO!"  
**Chapter VII  
**"So, after finding an editor in the host computer, we managed to expel our connection. If that's the case, shouldn't Christie have come out here too?" said Phil in summation.  
"Well, she normally would, but during transit, she fell through a plot hole. God knows where she is now." Joel responded.  
Christie is looking around a strangely blue and black screen. She is sitting on a sentence of some sort. She floats off and reads it.  
"Windows...has encountered...a critical...error--OH DEAR GOD NO!"


End file.
